Losers and all
by narwhalsandkurt
Summary: Kaleb moves from Englewood, Ohio to Lima, Ohio. Each chapter is loosely based off of the Alesana song it is named after. Listen to them as you read. It will make the chapter titles make sense. Really a crossover, but there is no Alesana tab for crossovers, so...


Chapter One: Best Ex-Friend

Had anybody ever asked me, I would have told them I didn't want to move to Lima, Ohio. I would have made it known that I wanted to say in Englewood, Ohio with my friends and pretend that nothing was ever wrong.

In truth, everything was wrong. My best friend, David, had decided that he wanted to move on from being my friend and left in the rain one night over the summer. Ryan and Tay were quick to take my side, but Dan and Steve sided with David, and thus began a feud that never seemed to quit.

So Ryan, Tay, and I sat around in Tay's basement all summer and listened to "Best Ex-Friend" by Alesana to try to cover up the scars of abandonment. I guess I was hit the hardest by this, since I thought David and I would always be best friends. Seriously, we were inseparable up until the summer before freshman year.

I'd always looked up to David. He was a cool dude, always did the right thing, hardly ever broke the rules… he was cool in a respectable way. He wasn't the kind of guy who would follow each rule in a frigid fashion, but he wouldn't skip classes or do drugs, either. Sure, we'd snuck a couple of beers over the years, but that's just normal pre-teen stuff. All of the kids at Northmont did that (well, except for said frigid-followers).

Actually, Northmont students weren't so mean to each other, or at least, they didn't beat each other up for no damn reason. We had a purpose for doing that, and a very good one, too.

Normally, I'd be happy-go-lucky and bubbly to a point where I even annoyed myself, but not anymore. I couldn't go on knowing that I wasn't wanted by David. I was never wanted by David. He yelled that at me when he left me by myself in the pouring July rain. He didn't want me, and would never want me again. I was all alone…

Well, except for Ryan and Tay, but they were so _lame_. I didn't want to watch iCarly and play World of Warcraft all day! I wanted to go out and spend a day doing nothing at all in the gentle warmth of the sun, while being caressed by the soft blades of grass beneath me. I'd take off my shoes and run thru the creek like we did when we were young and eat those tiny-ass blackberries that grew around that area. David and I would go up to the local Kroger's and get a bunch of Monsters, and down them all before we even started heading home. We'd be out right after breakfast, go back home for lunch or take a walk up to McDonald's, then go out again. We'd come back home way after dark and sit in the basement watching movies until two A.M., crash for a few hours, and then repeat. Sometimes, though, instead of watching movies, we'd sit in the basement and play Halo or Call of Duty with the sound on the T.V. turned up dangerously high.

I hardly ever slept over the summer. I was almost never home, and I often blew off little things for a few hours. Sometimes, if something really important was going on that night (i.e. party, the Avenue was open, etc.), I'd blow things off entirely, and do them quickly and quietly as soon as I got home. My parents were always confused by this – they were sure they'd have to ground me.

"Do we really have to go?" I whined as we were loading boxes into the moving van. My father looked back at me.

"Yes, we have to go!" He yelled. I cringed. I didn't like it when he yelled, but that was the only way he'd talk to me after I dyed my hair black and gotten a nose ring. "You may be upset, but guess what? NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU!"

"Oh, fuck you," I muttered under my breath. My dad's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"Kaleb," My brother, Kory, whispered.

"What?" I murmured.

"Don't test Dad," He warned. "He seems like he's about to kill you."

"He's always about to kill me!" I hissed. "He hates me! Don't you see that?"

"… Kaleb…"

"No, Kory. He hates me. He wishes I wasn't his son. We all know it."

Kory sighed and went off to help Mom load the car. I watched as my mother lifted a big box with ease, although she was eight months pregnant, and set down gently in the trunk. She always amazed us. There was nothing she couldn't do. She was kind to her enemies, loving to people she didn't like, and accepted all children as her own, even if it was just for a one-time sleepover or a seven-day Halo marathon. I loved my mother.

My head whipped around to where my father was yelling at a mover who through our box of china in the truck in a rather hasty manner. I sighed deeply. My father had no patience. I was honestly surprised me and my brother made through our terrible two's.

I exhaled sharply and strode over to the car.

_Yeah, it's definitely a miracle,_ I thought. I stared at the ground for the longest time before I looked up again, and regretted my decision to do so instantaneously.

There was David, just strolling down the street, when he looked over and caught my eye. We stared at each other for a minute before he hissed something under his breath before he turned and ran.

_Such pretty words, roll off of your tongue, flow out of your mouth, heard by everyone, so convincing I believed this for so long…_


End file.
